Stud type earring having dished plate attachment



y 1969 F. E. KING, JR 3,443,398

STUD TYPE EARRING HAVING DISHED PLATE ATTACHMENT Filed Sept. 12. 1966 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS FORREST E. K|NG,JR.

United States Patent 3,443,398 STUD TYPE EARRING HAVING DISHED PLATE ATTACHMENT Forrest E. King, Jr., 435 First Parish Road, Scituate, Mass. 02066 Filed Sept. 12, 1966, Ser. No. 578,761 Int. Cl. A44c 7/00 US. Cl. 63--13 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An improved earring has a dished plate with a central passage therethrough which slidably engages over the post of a stud earring with the head of the earring seating in the concave side of the plate and the smooth convex side of the plate bearing against the ear. A ring is secured at the lower edge of the plate and an ornamental drop is suspended from the ring. A retainer engages over the free end of the post to hold the earring in the ear.

This invention relates to an improved pierced earring construction. It relates more importantly to an earring construction which allows the wearer, using a single conventional basic stud earring, to select between a variety of earring colors and styles.

This invention is concerned primarily with a stud earring of the type having a post which extends through the earlobe, a head attached to one end of the post and some sort of securing means for engaging the other end of the post behind the earlobe to hold the earring in place. There are three common types of stud earrings. In the plain stud earring, the head attached to the post consists of a simple small ball. The ornamented stud earring has a fancier or decorative head such as a diamond or a sculptured object. The third type, the stud drop, may have either one of the two aforementioned head styles but has, in addition, a drop suspended from the stud. This drop may be a pendant or a sculptured figure or an ormanent on the end of a chain, etc.

As a general rule, it is not possible to change from one of these stud types to another. That is, all of the various ornaments and drops which make up these prior earrings are permanently fixed in place and cannot be removed or embellished upon. As a result, the wearer must purchase and maintain a large number of earring sets in order to give her the variety of style, degree of ornamentation and color which she requires.

It has been proposed to solve this problem by making a special stud earring having an integral fitting in the stud head or in the stud post from which a drop can be removably suspended. The ability to attach different types of drops to the same stud earring gives the overall earring construction a certain amount of flexibility.

This technique has a serious drawback, however, in that the wearer is required to stock two completely different types of stud earrings, to wit: the conventional one described above and those having facility for supporting the separate drop. While these tWo stud earring constructions look very much alike, they are wholly incompatible. Elements of one cannot be used with the other. As a practical matter, to avoid confusing the two, the wearer may have to store them in different places. Also, the fitting on the prior earring from which the drop is removably suspended tends to be rather large and bulky. It detracts from the earring design, and the pierced earring as a whole loses the petite quality that makes it desirable to wear in the first place.

Accordingly, this invention aims to provide an improved earring construction which can be converted quickly and easily by the wearer from one style to another.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved earring construction which allows the wearer, using a single basic stud construction, to select from a variety of earring colors and styles.

A still further object of this invention is to provide an earring construction which requires the wearer to stock only a single basic study earring construction.

Another object of this invention is to provide an earring attachment capable of converting a conventional plain stud earring to an ornamental stud earring or to a stud drop earring.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved interchangeable pierced earring which is relatively light and petite.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter. The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will 'be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth,

and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the elements of my improved pierced earring;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing the adapter forming part of the earring in FIG. 1

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a modified form of earring adapter;

FIG. 3B is a similar view of another modified form of earring adapter;

FIG. 3C is a similar view of a further modified form of earring adapter;

FIG 4A is a front view of a modified form of earring drop used on my improved pierced earring;

FIG. 4B is a similar view of another modified form of earring drop, and

FIG. 4C is a similar view of still another modified form of earring drop.

Briefly, the conventional stud earrings already in the wearers possession serve as the basic ingredients of my improved earring construction. These may be either a plain or ornamented stud earring, or a stud drop earring having the usual post which extends through the ear, and the customary screw nut or friction nut engaging the end of the post behind the earlobe to hold the earring in place. My earring construction also includes an earring adapter which is engaged on the post before that is inserted into the earlobe. The adapter frames the ornament or head of the earring and it also serves as a pad between the earring head and the earlobe. The adapter itself may be either plain or ornamented so as to embellish upon the design of the head. Also, provision is made in the adapter for attaching an earring drop or pendant.

In practice, the wearer purchases conventional drops or pendants already fitted with adapters or buys the two separately and secures them together or has them permanently joined by a jeweler. In some cases, the wearers own unused drop stud earrings or clasp earrings may provide a source of ornaments for coupling to the adapters. Thus, starting with only a single basic pair of conventional stud earrings, and a small collection of drops and adapters, the wearer can obtain a wide variety of earring color combinations and styles ranging from plain to very fancy to suit any occasion. This is in contradistinction to prior earrings having provision for interchanging drops which require a special earring construction to begin with, as described above.

Thus, the present invention enables the wearer to combine the drop of her choice with the stud earring of her choice. Any combination is possible among her present collection of pierced earrings, the adapters and the drops. Moreover, the wearer no longer has to keep one collection of conventional pierced earrings and a second separate collection of modified pierced earrings to which drops can be attached. Rather, she can supplement her existing earring collection at relatively little cost simply by procuring a number of inexpensive adapters and fitting them with suitable ornaments.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawing, my improved earring construction employs a conventional stud earring shown as having a plain ball head 12 and a post or shank 14 attached at one end to head 12. Earring 10 is juxtaposed with an car 16 which has been pierced at 18 to accommodate post 14. The usual friction nut 20 is shown positioned at the opposite side of car 16 from earring 10. A central opening 22 in nut 20 is adapted to receive post 14. When nut 20 is in place on post 14, a pair of resilient projections 24 on the nut engage post 14 at a reduced diameter portion 14a thereof so as to maintain earring 10 in car 16.

An earring adapter 26 in the form of a dished disk having a central passage 27 is slid onto post 14 prior to inserting the earring through the air. Adapter 26 has a small eye 28 in the form of a completely soldered round ring at the lower edge thereof. Also, an ornamental drop 32 is suspended from ring 28 by way of ring 34 secured to the top of drop 32.

With reference now to FIG. 2, when the adapter 26 is installed on post 14 and earring 10 is properly mounted on car 16, the smoothly-rounded, convex side 29 of adapted 26 engages the ear 16 forming a comfortable pad between the earring 10 and the car 16. Also, the ball head 12 of the earring nests or seats within the concave side 30 of adapter 26 so that the adapter secures the drop without danger of loss to the wearer.

It will be appreciated that by roper selection of head 12 and adapter 26 colors, drops of the users choice with their attached adapter 26 will achieve a wide variety of different design effects. For example, the head 12 and adapter 26 can both be made of similar metals such as gold or silver.

Also, the drop 32 contributes materially to the overall design effect created by the earring. While its color should be compatible with that of head 12 and adapter 26 to which it is attached, a large number of different color combinations are possible.

Of course, an infinite number of drop 32 styles can be utilized too. FIG. 4A depicts a so-called post drop 32a while FIG. 4B illustrates a ball drop 32b. FIG. 4C is simply an ornamental drop 320 in the shape of a fish. Preferably, all of these drops 32a-32c are permanently attached to adapters 26 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Obviously, adapter 26 itself can be designed to contribute more to the ornamentation of the earring as a whole. FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate a few representative more decorative adapter 26 styles that are suitable. FIG. 3A depicts an adapter 26a in the form of a flower blossom. Although the adapter 26a is fancier than the plain adapter 26 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, it includes the same basic components. More particularly, it has a central portion 38 in the form of a dished disk which provides both a rounded convex pad adjacent the ear and a concave seat for the earring head as described above in connection with adapter 26. Adapter 26a also has a ring 28a at its lower edge to support a drop as described above.

FIG. 3B illustrates an adapter 26]) in the form of a leaf, while FIG. 3C depicts an adapter 260 having a sunburst design. Adapter 260 has a drop supporting fixture 280 which is concealed behind the lowermost ray 40 of the sunburst design. This construction is particularly suitable when the adapter may be used by itself to embellish upon stud 10 (FIG. 1). This is because, when the adapter 260 is in use, the fixture 280 is not visible and so does not detract from the appearance of the earring.

It is apparent from the foregoing, then, that with a few conventional stud earrings having different heads 12 and a few different styles of adapters 26 and a few drops 32, the wearer can obtain a very large variety of earring designs and styles. For example, if the wearer already has a set of stud earrings 10, then the obtaining of only three different sets of drops 32 fitted with adapters 26 will give the wearer twelve possible earring combinations. These combinations may vary from a simple stud earring having a ball head, to a fancier stud drop type earring, to the most elaborate design of all employing an ornamented adapter and drop. Of course, this large number of possible earring combinations gives the wearer a correspondingly large color selection to choose from.

It is important to note also that the achieving of this great flexibility from the wearers existing stock of conventional earrings is accomplished at relatively little added expense to her. The cost of the adapter 26 is small. Further, the wearer can utilize drops or ornaments already on hand or even make her own ornaments from shells or ceramic. For example, she can take an existing pair of conventional stud drop earrings, remove the drops and attach them to a pair of adapters 26. In this way, she has effectively made two pairs of earrings out of the single original pair. Now if the same procedure is followed with other similar earrings in her possession, at little expense she can effectively increase the number of earrings in her collection.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing also that the conversion from one earring style to another through the use of my adapters is accomplished quite quickly and easily, and requires no particular skill or special tool. The conversion can be accomplished by the wearer in a few seconds simply by slipping the adapters 26 on or off the earring post 14. This ease of conversion between one earring style and another, coupled with the fact that ones existing collection can be effectively expanded at relatively little cost, make this a particularly desirable jewelry product.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing, shall be interpreted as illustrative.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An improved earring construction comprising a post for insertion through an earlobe, a head attached to one end of said post, a thin dished plate having a concave side for orienting toward said head and a generally smooth convex side for orienting toward said earlobe for contact therewith and further having a central passage therethrough slidably received on said post for engagement with the earlobe, retaining means removably engaging over the other end of said post to hold the post in the 5 6 earlobe, and a small ring at the edge of said plate and 1,134,372 4/1915 Cameron. extending below said edge for reception of an ornamental 2,710,511 6/1955 Baldwin 6314 p h n- 2,914,928 12/1959 Warden 6329 X 2. An improved earring construction as defined in 2,956,422 10/1960 Davidson 3*13 claim 1 and further including an ornamental drop sus- 5 3,093,364 7/1963 Varri 3 2 pended from said ring.

FOREIGN PATENTS References Cted 558,204 5/1923 France. UNITED STATES PATENTS 759,383 10/1956 Great Britain. 292,810 2/1884 Hartman 6313 X 10 758,848 5/1904 Rejchar 63-13 X F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner. 

